Alice in Chains

Which of the great grunge-rock acts had the biggest impact on today’s music scene? If you answered Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Soundgarden then you’re probably over the age of 18 and not listening to the same thing that millions of kids are in 2009.

The correct answer, for better or worse, has to Alice in Chains. That Seattle band drew up the blueprint for modern heavy metal during the first half of the ‘90s, inspiring Godsmack, Taproot, Staind and dozens of other brooding hard rockers. Even Metallica cited Alice in Chains as a major influence on some of its more recent work.

After releasing three albums, two of which topped the charts, Alice in Chains went into hibernation, while lead singer Layne Staley dealt with his well-publicized problems with drug addiction. When the vocalist died in 2002, from an overdose of heroin and cocaine, most assumed that the band would never be heard from again. Continue Reading →

We are in the midst of “The Brad Mehldau Weekend.” At least, that’s what the folks at SFJAZZ are calling it. Mehldau is one of my favorite jazz pianists, so I think the title has a nice ring to it. But, I’d bet that the lofty title would make Mehldau cringe.

“The Brad Mehldau Weekend” kicked off on Friday night as he performed in a cool duo setting with drummer Matt Chamberlain. The drummer isn’t well known in the jazz world, but he’s pure money in the pop/rock world. Most notably, perhaps, is that he was the guy setting the beat in an early incarnation of Pearl Jam. (You can see him at the kit in the band’s very first video, “Alive.”) Continue Reading →